Thinking about putting your venture on Start Some Good for fundraising? Start Some Good is a crowdfunding platform connecting social entrepreneurs with a community of supporters who wants to help financially and/or intellectually. It uses a unique “tipping-point” fundraising model to help ignite an idea.
While I worked on Ashoka’s Youth Venture’s Technology for a Better World Campaign, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sabrina Williams from the Original Green Community Food System project in south Los Angeles. Her Venture was one of the first to successfully receive funding from Start Some Good. She is aiming to bring urban agriculture and small farms to low-income residents in south LA and was happy to share her experiences with the fundraising process!
What is the Original Green Community Food System project? Why did you start it?
As a new project of home&community inc, our goal is to increase low-income residents’ access to fresh produce by engaging them in the production and delivery of healthier foods in their local community. After working with residents in 40 states on housing policy issues, we began this project to support resident efforts to grow their own food in public housing developments (where they are often prohibited from doing so). A natural extension of that work was to assist other low-income residents, outside of formal public housing. And, we were fortunate to receive two private, low-income housing sites to begin growing.
For those of us that don’t live in Los Angeles, why South LA? What’s the urgency?
South Los Angeles is dominated by fast food restaurants and a lack of healthy food alternatives. Mainstream grocery stores are rare. The area has the highest rate of childhood obesity in Los Angeles County. Low-income people are more likely to experience food insecurity and possess no reliable transportation.
In terms of our two sites, the nearest mainstream grocery store is nearly three miles away, and there are two neighborhood corner market/liquor stores that do not sell fresh produce. Residents on-site have expressed great interest in growing their own food and have suggested that using the site to do so would promote pride and a sense of community. They are already maintaining the site in anticipation of installing raised gardening beds.
How did you get started with Start Some Good? What drew you to utilize a funding platform like SSG?
We realized that for us to help others via Original Green, we’d have to fund the project. I’d read something about Start Some Good a while ago before the launch because I was gathering information about online fundraising – in particular the crowdsourcing model. Neither my board nor I felt the Kickstarter platform was right for home&community, inc due to the all-or-nothing concept. Although its take-it-all concept was attractive, IndieGoGo felt more attuned to creative endeavors. Early into our research we received notification that SSG was ready to go and decided the hybrid model was a good fit for us.
What strategies did you use to harness a community of supporters to help fund your project? Throughout the course of the campaign, what tactics you found were more effective in galvanizing people toward your cause and helping it reach the tipping point? Did you encounter any difficulties and if so, how did you deal with it?
The most important factor was having a committed group of supporters already on board before the campaign started. In other words, we knew that there were people we could count on to contribute. We believed (correctly, as it turned out) that they would then encourage others to contribute. Additionally, these initial supporters were all people who would contribute well above the base level. Having that initial $300 or $400 tally was a good thing for subsequent site visitors to see. We provided short paragraphs to those initial supporters to share with their contacts and included links to our video. The video specifically stated that we were raising money via Start Some Good. We received a lot of positive feedback on the video.
Our main difficulty was in gathering payments. Many of the people that contributed either don’t have a computer or credit/debit card (i.e. preferred to send a check or cash or both). Or they just outright don’t trust making online donations! (Yes, totally old school.) So, we had to ask a few supporters to use their cards to make the aggregate payments as they came in.
For those who are curious about Start Some Good and are wondering, “How can I help make a difference?” What would you like to tell them?
If they are supporters, I’d tell them the site offers an opportunity to find projects that are meaningful to you and to which you can contribute knowing how much is needed to “get started”… as opposed to only knowing the total goal.
If they are setting up a venture, my message would be to make sure you have a beginning, middle and end to your project, that you feel strongly about AND can articulate. Then, show how that beginning is going to get you to the end. SSG can help you fund that beginning and make a difference.
Thank you Sabrina for sharing your story!
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